Okay. Tomorrow is actually Tuesday but for everyone who works for a living, it will feel like Monday. Right? Happy Labor Day to those of us here in the States. In “jetting” around this past weekend, I discovered that several of our favorite restaurants are closed today in celebration so their employees can have a day off. Luckily, one is open and the James Gang is headed over there for a semi-late lunch to celebrate LG’s and Uncle Fix-It’s birthdays. Speaking of food, LG and I had Saturday lunch at our fave Mexican restaurant after siren test. Baseball Boy and Stormy joined us. Only was off photographing a wedding. We missed her but yay that she’s getting paid to use her talent.

Saturday was also the start of college football. The real OSU hung on by their fingernails to win, and OU had their hands full with Tulane, but they also managed to hang on. The wins are awsome but not exactly a auspitious start to the season. My Cards were a mixed bag. They REALLY need to find some reliable closing pitching. They had the game won yesterday but the late inning pitchers cratered. I’m not predicting a post season run for them which gives me a sad.

Closer to home, Stormy started his first game at catcher. He did okay. First game. First time at the position. Etc. We had to laugh–in a frustrated way–over his early obsession with moving the bat out of the way, irregardless of the play happening on the field. Somebody (the umpire? his coach?) told him to get the bat out of the way. So, when the opposiing batter got a hit and dropped the bat, Stormy dutiful went over, picked it up, and walked to their dugout. 🤦🏼‍♀️ His momma finally went to the dugout to adjust his shin guards and explain how that whole bat thing works. He stopped doing it after that–at least until the play was stopped. First game. It was the first game! LOL

Yesterday was actually a decent writing day. Surprise, surprise. I’m at approximately 25K words. It’s progress and the story structure is coming together. That’s the good news. And in other news, there really isn’t any bad news, but for how slow I’m getting words down. Ah well. 

I finished up the marathon re-listen of the Kate Daniels world series(es). Yes, series is one of those weird words where the plural is spelled the same as the singular but in this instance I want to make note that there are actually 4 series invovled, though currently three of those series only have one book each. Anyway, I’m a huge fan. Renée Raudman, who narrates the original series, does an amazing job. She’s a fave narrator. The 3 spin-off books have different narrators. Jeffrey Kafer (Magic Stars: Kate Daniels, #8.5, Grey Wolf, #1) does a good job with Derek’s character, even though his style is a bit Jack Webb/Joe Friday Dragnet, but it fits. Steve West (Iron and Magic: The Iron Covenant, #1; Kate Daniels, #9.5) nails Hugh D’Ambray. However, he slaughters Ascanio, Rafael, and Andrea–all well-established characters. It’s disconcerting but their roles aren’t huge in this book so it’s sorta okay. At least the accent he give’s Hugh is similar to the one Renée gave him in the Kate books. My real gripe is with Suzanne Elise Freeman, who narrates the first book in spin-off/continuiation of Kate’s world. Blood Heir (Aurelia Ryder, #1, Kate Daniels 10.5), and those who edited/produced the audio book. The narrator made everyone sound Southern. EVERYONE. She misprounced (BIG TIME) the names of two major characters. I don’t know if she just decided to take this book totally off the rails of her own accord, if she decided not to listen to previous books in the series, or what. Barabas is procounced BAH-rah-bus. It is NOT pronounced Bar-BAH-rus. He plays a fairly large role in this book. Saimin is SAY-mon NOT Simon. Mahon is MAY-han NOT Main. Really!?!?! Hugh sounds like a good ol’ Kenucky boy, Roland and Ara sound like normal people, not near-immortals who built Babylon and the Tower of Babel. I will give the narrator this, she did a very good job with Julie/Aurelia and Derek. I find the discrepancies discouraging and wonder if the authors had ANY input into the finished versions. Dear Publishers, pay frickin’ attention! And not, I’m not the only fan who’s ranted about this. I can only hope if/when the next book comes out that steps have been taken. These are NYT best-selling authors. There is no reason to wreck their words in the audio version. 😡

Okay. Moving on. See, I’m ranting about books because I don’t want to talk about how disgusted I am with the world. I will mention that next up on my to-listen list is Shelly Laurenston’s BREAKING BADGER. The honey badgers return and I’m hoping it makes me laugh as much as the previous books did.

Let’s see… Nope. Empty brain. Nothing else of import to report. Oh, it did rain Saturday night, the dew point is lower so the humidity is down which means the high 80s of the next few days don’t feel like the high 90s. Okay. Now I’m done. How was your weekend? Are you celebrating the holiday? Any plans for the upcoming week? Have a good one!